Embrace your heritage,
Embrace your myths and traditions,
There are voices to be heard and
stories to be shared through photography,
...and photography practice to be explored
through personal stories and feelings.
What's your story? Who are you?
Free participation: Entries open on 1 November 2025
Participants: Only if your work is selected or by invitation.
Deadline: 15 December 2025
All the details (TBC) will be available via the Symposium page, 1 November 2025
Complete the form below or email at events@chesterphotofestival.com
Free participation: Entries open on 1 November 2025
Deadline: 15 December 2025
All the details (TBC) will be available via the Symposium page, 1 November 2025
You can visit the Courses and Workshops sections for inspiration and possible guidance.
Ideally, your photography work should focus on myths, folklore, personal feelings, or memories explored through photography as a creative practice.
We hope that people will bring new and unexpected photography topics to discuss, as well as curiosities, problems, or questions that everyone will value.
Here are a few examples of potential photography topics to be explored:
Re-imagining, imagining, familiarity, every day, the unknown, the new;
The missing object, objects together, misplaced object(s), unseen, staged or banal;
From afar, at a distance, distance, behind, shadows, colour, shape and time;
The narrative, the missing or incomplete image, the missing photograph;
Misrepresentation and misunderstanding;
The printed photograph as a physical object, the digital photograph as a virtual object;
Self-exploration. Who am I?
Artificial intelligence and the mechanical act of taking or reproducing a picture;
The possibility of creating a photograph without a meaning.
What if I create a photograph and someone else writes the artist's statement?
What if I create a photograph for an already written statement?
The theme will be announced on November 1, 2025.
The symposium is expected to take place in the lecture theatre at Grosvenor Museum in Chester.